Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

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Build Good Habits for the New Year

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Matthew Boffey has 5 important suggestions for those who wish to set new habits in their Bible reading and devotional times.

  1. Know your why.
  2. Know your what.
  3. Know your when and where.
  4. Know your how.
  5. Prepare to change things up.

Along the way, he offers specific tips for busy church leaders. Perhaps you’ve decided to join our annual 90-day Bible reading challenge. Perhaps you’d simply like to improve your overall time in the Word. These simple suggestions will make a big difference to help you reinforce good habits.

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Top 10 Posts of 2022

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San Churchill (2007), Creative Commons

It’s hip and cool for bloggers to post their top 10 posts of the year. And we want to be hip and cool. Our hearts tell us to do it, and the Bible says to “walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes” (Eccl 11:9). So here goes.

Last week, we gave you the top 10 posts from those written in 2022. Now, we list the top 10 posts from the full KW archive. If lots of other people are reading these posts, you probably should be, too.

And this is the tenth anniversary of our annual Top Ten lists. Could that mean we’re getting closed to the millennium?

10. Top 10 OT Books Quoted in NT

This post is down from #9 last year. Though it comes from a series that analyzes not only books but also chapters and verses, this list of most-quoted books always seems to be one of the most popular.

9. 11 Old Testament Books Never Quoted in the New Testament

This post is down from #8 last year. It comes from the same six-part series—mentioned in the previous entry—analyzing every NT citation of an OT text. It’s interesting that, in that series about the NT quoting the OT, the most popular post is about the OT books that never get a direct quotation.

8. Summary of the OIA Method

Just as the title says, this post summarizes the OIA method we aim to teach. It’s basically the reason this blog exists, so we’re glad it gets a lot of page views. This is down from #7 last year.

7. 4 Bible Studies for Lent

This companion piece to Ryan’s 4 Bible studies for Advent is down from #5 last year. Lent is a great time to study the Bible, and here are four 6.5-week studies you could consider for that season. Be forewarned, however: These are not your typical you-can-only-trust-the-experts, fill-in-the-blank sort of Bible studies you may be used to.

6. How to Recognize Sowers of Discord

This post has been up and down the list for many years, rising from #10 last year. This post outlines from Proverbs 6:12-15 a few signs to help recognize divisive people. This post comes from Peter’s 2013 series of studies through the first 9 chapters of Proverbs.

5. Identifying Behemoth and Leviathan in the Book of Job

This post first appeared in 2015 as part of a brief series on Job (which included the #2 post coming later in this list) and was republished in 2021. But 2022 marks the first time this post appears on the top 10 list. As can be seen from the title, it identifies what the behemoth and leviathan are in the book of Job. Teaser: They are not the hippopotamus and crocodile. And they are not dinosaurs, either, but something even worse. You’ll have to read the post to find out what.

4. Context Matters: Apart From Me, You Can Do Nothing

This investigation of John 15 debuted on the top 10 list year at #6, rising two positions higher this year. This “context matters” post does not suggest any drastic rethinking of the popular use of the verse in question; it largely shows how rich and deep our grasp can go when the verse is read without isolating it from its context.

3. Context Matters: You Have Heard That it was Said…But I Say to You

This 2018 post was #9 on this list in 2020, but rose to #3 last year and solidly remains in that position. This post examines the series of contrasts in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount to determine, from the context, what Jesus was arguing against. Hint: It wasn’t the Old Testament Law.

2. Why Elihu is So Mysterious

The popularity of this 2015 post (republished in 2021) continues to surprise us. We really cannot explain why it has been so popular, but if you haven’t read it, you must really be missing out! Elihu is that mysterious fourth friend in the book of Job. If you even knew he existed, chances are you’ve skipped his speeches entirely. This post is Peter’s attempt to explain Elihu’s role in the drama of the play of Job. This post was #3 in 2017, but then held the #1 slot until dropping to #2 in 2021, where it remains to this day.

1. 10 Reasons to Avoid Sexual Immorality

This was the most-viewed post in 2014, but then it dropped off the list until resurfacing as #8 in 2017 and #2 in 2018 and 2019. It dropped slightly to #3 in 2020, but has simply gone off the charts since 2021. No other post comes even close in pageviews. We’re delighted to see a continued interest in such an important topic. Find whatever motivates you to avoid sexual immorality, and glum onto God’s grace in providing that motivation!

Previous years’ lists: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013

Do You Know What You are Reading?

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The Bible is not a monolithic book by a single author. Yes, God is behind the entire thing, but he chose to inspire dozens of authors in dozens of different contexts to communicate his message to the world. So depending on where you are in the Bible, you could be reading any of a number of different genres.

Tommy Keene tackles this issue with much clarity, encouraging us to be sure to identify the genre of any given book or part of the Bible we are reading. Genre has perhaps more influence over what we can expect from a text than anything else.

Genre defines how a certain literary event fits within culturally adjacent literary events. To ask about a work’s “genre” is to ask “how is this work similar to other works, and how does that allow me to better interpret what it is trying to accomplish?” Furthermore, determining discourse type, or literary context, is key to interpreting what you are reading. Imagine you get it wrong. Imagine, for example, that you confuse fiction with non-fiction, or satire with genuine news, or the political stump speech with actual policy, or South Park with a child’s cartoon show. You’re likely in for some interpretive troubles. If you want to interpret any of these things correctly, you need to know how the genre works.

Keene gives a few very simple yet effective strategies for determining the genre of your text. We would do well to heed his counsel.

Check it out!

Top 10 Posts of 2022—Written in 2022

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Many bloggers take advantage of this time of the year to reflect on their most popular posts. Now we know there is a time to follow the crowd (Zech 8:23), and a time not to follow the crowd (Ex 23:2). And I believe the present time to be akin to the former and not the latter. So here we go.

This post lists the top 10 viewed posts this year, from among the posts we wrote this year. Next week, we’ll list the top 10 viewed posts from the full KW archive. May these lists enable you to be warm and well fed while you celebrate the season with joy and delight.

10. Topical Index for Proverbs

In this post, I shared the fruit of more than four years’ study of the book of Proverbs. It’s not perfect, and if I had more time, I would spiff it up and reorganize it quite a bit. But being what it is, it may have proved useful to some folks, as this page had the tenth highest view-count of all we wrote this year. I’m still not planning to add this to the resources page, so this might be your last chance to find it before it gets buried in this site’s archives.

9. Context Matters: Righteous Deeds Are Like Filthy Rags

One of only six “Context Matters” posts to be written this year (sorry for slacking!), and the first of two to appear on this list, this post examines Isaiah’s famous statement to show that it is both more shocking and more close-to-home than is typically communicated. There are several passages that could be used to instruct unbelievers about salvation by faith alone. That is a glorious truth, and the church should teach it! But we need not resort to pulling this colorful simile out of context to make the point.

8. When a Name Goes Missing in the Bible

In Genesis 21, Moses uses names, repeatedly, for all of the characters except one. That should make us sit up and take notice. In observation we gather the fuel we need for the fire of interpretation, and observing odd insertions or omissions is no exception.

7. Context Matters: The Whole Armor of God

The second “Context Matters” post to appear on this list examines the famous passage from Ephesians 6 about the helmet of salvation and shield of faith. Far from being a cute picture for coloring pages and children’s Bibles, this passage masterfully drives home Paul’s argument for unity in the church of Jesus Christ. Your real enemy is never your fellow church member who disagrees with you. So next time you get in a fight with a brother or sister—perhaps even within your own household—please let the whole armor of God strengthen you to the ends of peace and victory over the devil’s divisive schemes.

6. We Love to Give Gold Stars

Ryan struck a chord with this post, where he challenges our proclivity to label every Bible character as a good guy or bad guy. We want to identify each particular action as either praiseworthy or condemnable. The problem with this is that the Bible will not bow to our desires for quick labeling. Applying narrative texts requires the hard, slow work of wisdom.

5. The First Commentator to Plead His Case

Farther down this list are my Ten Commandments for Commentary Usage. This post offers, ahem, commentary on the fourth commandment: You shall not read only one commentary, but shall invite a plurality of voices into the conversation. A plurality of commentaries is helpful because, otherwise, the first one we read will be presumed to be right. And we really need to demystify the presumed priesthood of experts in our day.

4. Reading Across the Chapter Breaks in 2 Timothy

Did you know that the chapter (and verse) divisions in your Bible are not original to the text? And they have perhaps the most dramatic effect on our reading of the Bible. Those large, bolded numbers (usually accompanied by section headings) scream at us: “Start reading here!” and “Stop reading now!” But when we learn to read across those chapter breaks, our grasp of the author’s argument sees much improvement. Here is an example in 2 Timothy.

3. What We Miss When We Skip the Book of Ezra

The book of Ezra is an odd duck. It bears the name of a man who doesn’t appear in its first half. Though titled like a minor prophet, this is a book of history, one far shorter than most historical books in Scripture. And it is one of the few portions of God’s word set after the Babylonian exile. It’s got long lists of names in chapters 2, 8, and 10. But Ryan shows how this little book has much to offer.

2. Ten Commandments for Commentary Usage

The OIA Bible study method ought not be incompatible with rigorous usage of commentaries. But there is an everpresent danger of relying on commentaries more than the text, or of allowing commentaries to prevent you from wrestling with the text as you ought. Therefore the main question for commentary usage is not whether but when. These commandments for commentary usage include: You shall not avoid or ignore commentaries from belief in self-sufficiency to study the Scriptures. You shall not pick up a commentary as soon as Bible study is “hard.” You shall make every effort to form interpretive conclusions or questions about interpretations before consulting a commentary.

1. Song of Songs: The Intoxication of True Love in its Time

When the Lord God made the heavens and the earth, there was only one thing that he declared was not good: the man’s being alone. So God promptly invented romantic love, and his word is very clear about how such love works. This post provides an interpretive walkthrough of Solomon’s Greatest Song, showing that we shouldn’t have to choose between interpreting it literally or allegorically.

Previous years’ top tens: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017

The Problem with Jesus’ Genealogies

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The Advent season is a great time to revisit the opening chapters of the gospels, which often brings people to consider afresh the genealogies of Jesus presented in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. And you don’t have to go very far into those genealogies to recognize a few major issues.

The first and clearest issue is that the two genealogies are completely different in the generations from David to Jesus! And a second issue that arises from deeper digging is that Matthew presents Jesus as the descendant of a man (Jeconiah) whom God has promised would never have descendants sit on the throne of Israel (Jer 22:30).

What do we make of these issues? Robby Lashua is here to help. In this brief piece he considers these issues and explains a solution.

If Jesus is truly the prophesied Messiah, as much of the world will celebrate this Christmas, he must be a descendant of David. Thankfully, the genealogies of Jesus show that David was, in fact, his ancestor. But there’s a problem in the genealogies—actually, there are two problems.

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Hope for Weary Saints from Psalm 126

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Jacob Tanner offers an encouraging exposition of Psalm 126:

That Psalm 126 bears the heading “A Song of Ascents,” and is within the grouping of the Psalms of Ascent is a providential grace of God. Likely penned later than most other Psalms, it offers a great degree of hope and comfort to those weary saints who, like the Israelites of the Babylonian exile, long to be set free from their burdens and trials. It is a Psalm that promises the pious tears of troubled saints will turn to laughter and joy by the grace of God.

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Lessons from the Reformers About Dead Bible Teachers

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The early Reformers pioneered the sort of Bible study that prizes the Scripture itself more highly than any church council or clergy. And yet they didn’t reject completely the need to listen to Bible teachers of the past. At the Logos Word by Word blog, David Barshinger explains three key principles we can learn from the Reformers.

  1. The Reformers treated the Bible as God’s very word.
  2. They recognized the value of Bible teachers—even dead ones.
  3. And they didn’t see any Bible teacher as infallible.

This brief piece provides a good introduction to the role of tradition in balance with the authority of Scripture.

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Paul’s Letter With the Most OT Quotations

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Last week, we saw a sudden bump in traffic to our list of New Testament books that quote the Old Testament, thanks to the game show Jeopardy!

On November 16, the clue to the final round was “Paul’s letter to them is the New Testament epistle with the most Old Testament quotations.” And there was much uproar when the contestant who responded with “Who are the Hebrews” was credited with being correct. So the fact-checkers among the show’s fans have been visiting our site in droves to observe that we’ve actually got Romans at the top of the list.

The biggest online uproar has been over the fact that most contemporary scholars believe Paul didn’t even write Hebrews, despite the King James Bible crediting the book to him. But I think the bigger issue is simply: What counts as a “quotation”? Because Hebrews has more OT references than Romans only if you count allusions (such that you count every reference to Moses, covenant, priest, or sacrifice). But by any measure of clear quotations or explicit citations of an OT text, Romans wins.

The Jeopardy! contestant with the correct answer should have blown out the others but instead lost the game!

Dr. Greg Lanier from Reformed Theological Seminary agrees that this is the more substantive problem with the Jeopardy! clue. His piece at the Gospel Coalition blog explains with much clarity and detail.

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Re-Train Yourself in How to Read

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We just launched our 2023 Bible reading challenge, and Tommy Keene has some good advice to help you along your way. He discusses “The Problem with Reading the Bible Verse by Verse,” and gives many practical suggestions for becoming better readers of the Bible.

Over the years we have trained ourselves to read the Bible in an unnatural way, so we’re going to have to break some bad habits. We are trained to read the Bible verse-by-verse, but in keeping with the “ordinary reading principle” we need to change our habits. We should ordinarily be reading the Bible paragraph-by-paragraph or, even better, book-by-book.

To re-train ourselves, we must discipline ourselves to read and get swept up in the grand literature of the Bible. We must be content not to read commentaries or study notes every time we have a question. We ought to devour the Scripture in gobbles rather than nibbles.

Keene discusses the benefits of reader’s editions and audio Bibles, all of which are encouraged in our reading challenge. Let Keene strengthen your conviction to read God’s word this year as though it was something God gave you to be read (because it was).

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Is There a Place for Christian Prayers of Cursing?

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The Psalms are often described as a hymnbook or prayer book for God’s people. Yet any reader of the Psalms can’t get far into the book without needing to ask a fundamental question: Are these prayers still fitting for God’s people who live after the cross and the teaching of Jesus? C. John Collins states the matter like this:

Many psalms call on God for help as the faithful are threatened with harm from enemies. In a number of places, the form of the requested help is God’s punishment of these enemies. Christians, with the teaching and example of Jesus (e.g., Matt. 5:38–48; Luke 23:34; 1 Pet. 2:19–23; cf. Acts 7:6), wonder what to make of such curses. How can it possibly be right for God’s people to pray in this way?

Collins’s answer is surprisingly thorough for how concise it is. I encourage you to see what he has to say.

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